Peace attempts made by the Government of Sri Lanka (1985-2006)
¨ The first-ever peace talks between the Sri
Lankan government, Tamil militants and
Tamil political parties were held in the
Thimpu talks
Bhutanese capital of Thimpu in July 1985.
The talks were also the first and the most
comprehensive meeting of a government
delegation, militants and moderate Tamil
politicians. The militant groups and Tamil parties agreed on a formula
Thimpu talks
which urged the government to accept four principles including the
right to self determination and the recognition of the north and east as the traditional
Tamil homeland. However, the government rejected these demands. Analysts say that the
LTTE and other Tamil militant groups came to the conference harboring the
misconception that they would get the separate state of Eelam.
¨ Subsequently in July 1987, the then
Indian Prime Minister Rajeev Gandhi
and Sri Lankan President J. R.
Jayewardene signed the Indo-Sri Lanka
Peace Accord in Colombo guaranteeing
the rights of the Tamil minority and
paving the way for the disarming of the
Tamil militants in order for them to
enter the democratic mainstream.
Rajeev Gandhi
J.R. Jayawardene
-Apart from the LTTE, the several other militant groups formed democratic political parties
and entered the mainstream to secure their aspirations.
-However, to establish itself as the only leader and the only representation of the Tamil
people, the LTTE assassinated most of the Tamil leaders, militant groups, intellectuals who
entered mainstream politics.
-All groups except the LTTE demobilized; however, the LTTE
resisted disarmament attempts by the Indian Peace Keeping Force
(IPKF) resulting in the death of 1500 Indian soldiers and its eventual
withdrawal in 1990.
-The LTTE in its characteristic of brutality and of violence,
assassinated Indian Prime Minister Rajeev Gandhi by a suicide attack
in 21st May 1991 Prime Minister Rajeev Gandhi was proactive and
was committed in bringing peace to Sri Lanka through negotiations.
Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF)
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¨ April 1989 - June 1990: The government engaged in direct
communications with the LTTE leadership in seeking a peaceful
settlement for the conflict. India withdrew the last of its forces from Sri
Lanka in early 1990, and fighting between the LTTE and the
government resumed as the government launched military operations.
LTTE committed serious human rights violations, including abduction
of children for recruitment.
Ranasinghe Premadasa
¨ February 1990: Formal peace talks between the government
and the LTTE commenced at the Colombo Hilton. The peace talks
failed due to mutual distrust and accusations that both sides arming themselves while talking
peace. President Premadasa, who took initiative to solve the issue of north and east through
negotiations in 1990s, was also assassinated by the LTTE suicide bomber in 01st May 1993.
This assassination was followed by a string of assassinations of Sinhalese political leaders
using suicide bombers.
¨ October 1994: Newly elected President Chandrika Kumaratunga,
initiated peace talks with the LTTE. However, this effort did not bear
fruit either.
¨ January 1995: The Sri Lankan Government and the LTTE agreed to
a cessation of hostilities as a preliminary step to a government-initiated
plan for peace negotiations. However, in April 1995, the LTTE
unilaterally resumed hostilities with an attack on Trincomalee naval base
in the east of the island.
-Proving the fact that the LTTE’s intention of not seeking a solution
through peaceful means, LTTE carried out an attempt to assassinate
president Chandrika Kumaratunga as a LTTE suicide bomber blew herself
at an election rally attended by the former President in 1999.
Chandrika
Kumaratunga
-The government then adopted a policy of military engagement with the Tigers, with
government forces liberating Jaffna from LTTE control by mid-1995 and moving against
LTTE positions in the northern Vanni district. An LTTE counteroffensive begun in October
1999 reversed most government gains and by May 2000 threatened to eliminate government
forces in Jaffna. Heavy fighting continued until 2001.
¨ December 2001: Following the election of the new government, the LTTE and the
government declared unilateral cease-fires.
¨ February 2002: The Government and the LTTE signed a Ceasefire Agreement (CFA)
with Norwegian facilitation and peace talks began in December 2002. However, after three
rounds, peace talks broke down on 21st April 2003 as the LTTE announced that they were
suspending the talks due to their displeasure at the handling of some critical issues.
-Among the reasons the LTTE gave for this were their exclusion from reconstruction talks in
Washington DC on 14th April 2003 and a more general perception that they were not
receiving the full economic rewards of peace, the failure, as they saw it, of dividends in peace
talks to transfer to security withdrawals on the ground and the disparity, as they saw it,
between the relative calm of the government-held north-east and continuing violence in
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Tiger-held areas. However the LTTE maintained that it was committed to a negotiated
settlement to the two-decade conflict, but stated that progress had to be made on the ground
before the settlement could be implemented. On 31st October 2003, the LTTE issued its own
peace proposal, calling for an Interim Self-Governing Authority (ISGA). The ISGA would be
controlled by the LTTE and would have broad powers in the north and east. However, the
governments’ coalition partners rejected this proposal, which they saw as sinister attempt to
lay the ground works for a separate state.
-Meanwhile, the LTTE continued extortions both nationally and internationally and
strengthened themselves militarily by smuggling in arms and ammunition, forcibly recruiting
child soldiers, and engaging in the killings of government intelligence agents and members of
rival Tamil groups. The latter were former militants who had entered the democratic process.
¨ The parliamentary elections, held on 8th April 2004, resulted in victory for governing
party and its alliance with the Marxist party, the JVP (People’s Liberation Front), with
Mahinda Rajapakse appointed as Prime Minister. Initial fears of a resumption of the conflict
proved unfounded when the new government expressed its desire to continue the peace
process and to find a negotiated settlement to the conflict.
-In the meantime, there was a major split between the
northern and eastern wings of the LTTE. The eastern
commander
of
the
LTTE
Vinayagamurthi
Muralidharan, popularly known as Colonel Karuna,
who was one of Prabakaran's most trusted lieutenants
broke off from the LTTE along with 5,000 eastern
cadres, claiming that the Eastern Province Tamils were
denied resources and power by the LTTE leadership.
This was the biggest expression of dissension in the
history of the LTTE and a civil war within the LTTE seemed
LTTE soldiers
imminent. After the parliamentary elections, brief fighting south of
Trincomalee led to a rapid retreat and capitulation of Karuna's group, their leaders eventually
going into hiding including Karuna himself. However, the "Karuna faction" maintains a
significant presence in the east and continues to launch attacks against the LTTE.
-The breakaway group subsequently formed a political party known as the Tamil Eelam
Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal (TMVP) hoping to contest in future elections. Meanwhile, the
LTTE continued the killing political opponents and government intelligence officers, while
the rebels accused the government of supporting paramilitary groups against them, especially
the Karuna group. The ceasefire largely held through this turmoil, although the situation was
complicated.
-On 26th December 2004, the Indian Ocean tsunami hit Sri Lanka, killing more than 30,000
people, and leaving many hundreds more homeless. Aid poured in from around the world
from both national and private donors, but disagreements arose over the modalities of aid
distribution in the LTTE controlled areas. By 24th June 2005, the government and the LTTE
agreed on the Post-Tsunami Operational Management Structure (P-TOMS), but it was
denounced by the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) and the JVP. However, immediately
following the tsunami there was a marked decrease in violence in the north.
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-On 12 th August 2005, a LTTE sniper assassinated Foreign Minister
Lakshman Kadirgamar who was an ethnic Tamil. He was highly respected
internationally and his efforts had led to the proscription of the LTTE by
several western states including the U.S and the UK. His assassination
further marginalized the LTTE internationally.
¨ During the November 2005 presidential election, the LTTE enforced a
voting prohibition in areas under its control. The presidential candidate of
Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) Mahinda Rajapakse was victorious and
immediately offered to hold unconditional peace talks with the LTTE.
Lakshman Kadirgamar
-Following the presidential election of November 2005, the LTTE
leader Velupillai Prabhakaran stated in his annual address that the
Tigers would "renew their struggle" in 2006. Just days after
Prabhakaran's speech, a new round of violence erupted. Beginning in
December 2005, there was increased guerilla activity in the north-east,
including claymore attacks (which killed 150 government troops),
clashes between the Sea Tigers and the Sri Lanka Navy, and the
killings of sympathizers of the government.
Peace Talks - Geneva 1
Mahinda Rajapakse
¨ The co-chairs of the Tokyo Donor
conference called on both parties to return to the negotiating
table. The United States in particular were heavily critical of
the violence perpetrated by the LTTE. Both parties agreed on
7th February 2006 that new talks could be held in Geneva,
Switzerland on 22nd -23rd February.
-The LTTE resumed attacks against the military on 10th April 2006 and called for a
postponement of the Geneva talks until 24th-25th April 2006. On 20th April, the LTTE
officially pulled out of peace talks indefinitely and continued their attacks in the north and the
east: they attacked civilian targets, massacring six rice farmers on 23rd April and hacking a
young mother to death and kidnapping her infant the next day.
29th May 2006: The European Union proscribed the LTTE. It resulted in the freezing of
LTTE assets in EU member states.
June 2006: Further peace talks were scheduled in Oslo, Norway, between 8th -9th June but
canceled when the LTTE refused to meet directly with the government delegation claiming
its fighters were not been allowed safe passage to travel to the talks. Norwegian mediator
Erik Solheim told journalists that the LTTE should take direct responsibility for the collapse
of the talks.
¨ New talks were scheduled in Oslo to discuss the future of the Scandinavian-led Sri Lanka
Monitoring Mission (SLMM). The LTTE flew to Oslo but refused to participate in talks with
the Government of Sri Lanka. They demanded that the SLMM remove any monitors from
EU-member states. It resulted in the freezing of LTTE assets in EU member states, and put an
end to its efforts to raise funds its terror campaign in Sri Lanka. In a statement, the European
Parliament emphasized strongly the fact that the LTTE did not represent all the Tamils and
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called on it to "allow for political pluralism and alternate democratic voices in the northern
and eastern parts of Sri Lanka".
¨ 8th-9 th June 2006:
-Further peace talks were scheduled in Oslo, Norway, between
8th-9th June but canceled when the LTTE refused to meet directly
with the government delegation claiming its fighters had not
been allowed safe passage to travel to the talks. They demanded
that the SLMM remove any monitors from EU-member states.
Norwegian mediator Solheim told journalists that the LTTE
should take direct responsibility for the collapse of the talks.
Peace Talks - Geneva 2
th
15 June 2006
-The massacre of Kebithigollewa on 15th June in which the LTTE attacked a bus killing at
least 64 Sinhalese civilians, which included mostly children.
21st July 2006
-The LTTE closed the sluice gates of the Mavil Aru reservoir and cut the water supply to
15,000 villagers in the Government controlled areas.
2nd August 2006
-The clashes erupted on 2nd August 2006; the LTTE attacked Muttur and then moved in
gaining control of some parts of the town. The military retaliated.
6th August 2006
-17 persons working for the international French charity Action against Hunger (ACF) in
Muttur, were found executed.
12th August 2006
-Assassination of Mr. Kethish Loganadan, a prominent and well respected Tamil human
rights and peace activist, the former deputy secretary General of the Peace Secretariat. This
Assassination mounted up to 30 assassinations of the Tamil intellectuals by the LTTE.
14th August 2006
-A claymore attack on the convoy carrying the Pakistani High Commissioner to Sri Lanka
Bashir Wali Mohamed. Ambassador escaped unhurt but seven others were killed. The LTTE
are strongly believed to have carried out the attack.
15th August 2006
-Eventually, following heavy fighting with the rebels, government troops gained full control
of the Mavil Aru reservoir.
17th August 2006
-LTTE Sea Tiger cadres attacked the Dakshina naval base in the southern port city of Galle.
-Following the clashes in Mavil Aru and Muttur, the LTTE had intensified attacks targeting
the naval base in Trincomalee.
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21st August 2006
-In a speech on 21st August, the Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse made clear that the
government intentions were to neutralize the LTTE threat from Sampur, which is located near
the strategic naval base of Trincomalee.
28th August 2006
-The Sri Lankan military launched an assault on the LTTE camps in Sampur and the
adjoining Kaddaiparichchan and Thoppur areas to retake the territory.
-LTTE declared that if the offensive continued, the cease-fire would be officially over.
¨ 28th -29 th October 2006:
-Despite these incidents, both parties agreed to unconditionally attend peace talks in Geneva
on 28th -29th October. However, the peace talks broke down due to disagreements over the
reopening of the key A9 highway, which is the link between Jaffna and government
controlled areas in the south.
-The government decided to drive out the LTTE out of the Eastern Province of Sri Lanka and
to free the 35,000 civilians who were used as human shields in the areas controlled by the
LTTE.
-LTTE cadres carried out two bus bombings in the south of the country killing 21 civilians.
January 2007
-After months of heavy fighting, Vakarai, one of the eastern strongholds of the LTTE was
liberated by the government troops.
-Tamil Tiger rebels launched their first-ever air attack, which targeted the Katunayake Air
Force base adjacent to Bandaranike International Air Port by the end of January 2007.
1st April 2007:
-LTTE killed six Sinhalese tsunami aid workers in the eastern district of Baticoloa.
2nd April 2007
-Suspected LTTE cadres set off a bomb aboard a civilian bus in Ampara killing 17 people
including children.
11th July 2007
-The Army's capture of the last eastern stronghold of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam at
Thoppigala.
02nd September 2007
-Liberation of Arippu and Silavathurai areas located south of Mannar (in the Northern
province) from the grip of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.
© The Permanent Mission of Sri Lanka to the United Nations Office at Geneva
www.lankamission.org
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